Orange, New Jersey

Orange is a township in Essex County, New Jersey. The area was settled by Connecticut settler families after 1666, and it was originally a part of Newark, being known as "Newark Mountains". On 7 June 1780, the people of Newark Mountains chose to change its name to "Orange" in honor of William of Orange, and it seceded from Newark on 27 November 1806. On 13 March 1860, Orange was formally incorporated as a city, and it became an industrial city and the hatmaking capital of the United States. Once a multi-ethnic and economically diverse city, Orange was negatively affected by the 1967 Newark riots and the construction of the Essex Freeway through the heart of the downtown area. By the end of 1970s, Orange was suffering from the same problems as large cities. In 1982, Orange returned to being a township in order to participate in a revenue sharing program, but the program was later phased out. In 2016, Orange had a population of 30,583 people.